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The EVIPA was signed at the end of June. Since 1990, 21 investment promotion and protection agreements (IPA) have been signed by Vietnam with 22 EU member countries. What is the difference between the EVIPA and previous IPAs?

The EVIPA was reviewed in August 2018 and moved from bilateral to multilateral because it must be approved by both the European Parliament and the new EU Member States Parliament. Most bilateral commitments are respected and both the EU and Vietnam are committed to give national treatment and most favored nation treatment to investors of the other party as well as fair and satisfactory treatment, safeguarding safety and completeness, allowing freedom to transfer capital and profits from investment abroad, pledging not to acquire and nationalize investors' assets without adequate compensation.

Notably, compared to the investment encouragement and protection agreements that Vietnam has signed with previous EU member countries, commitments in EVIPA are more detailed and more advanced. That will help Vietnam achieve a balance between attracting investment and protecting national interests. For example, this agreement has clear criteria for each behavior that the state is not implementing; supplementing a number of regulations to ensure the right to adjust policies of the country receiving investment capital, especially for policies on public health protection, environmental safety, consumers, and diversity of culture; developing a mechanism of solving a permanent investment dispute in place of a case-based mechanism whereby disputes are resolved at a permanent adjudicating office with two levels of primary and appellate trial with members of Vietnam and EU.

It can be affirmed that the signing of EVIPA is a great victory in international economic, political and investment relations of Vietnam, raising Vietnam's position in the international arena, which leads to promoting investment from EU and other regional countries into Vietnam.

Considered a big boost to the Vietnamese economy, what opportunities will this agreement bring to Vietnam in promoting investment from the EU?

The IPA negotiation process with the EU has been linked to the negotiation process and proceeded to conclude the EVFTA. Accordingly, on October 17, 2018, the European Commission officially adopted the EVFTA and EVIPA. By June 25, 2019, the Council of Europe approved the signing of the agreements. It can be seen that EVFTA's commitments on trade and services are higher than those of WTO as well as the EU with other partners, such as the elimination of Vietnam's import tax to the EU. After seven years from the entry into force of the agreement, the EU will eliminate 99.2% of tariff lines, which will contribute to boosting investment from the EU and other countries into Vietnam.

Moreover, the deep commitment of investment in EVIPA will replace the Agreement to encourage and protect bilateral investment between Vietnam and EU member countries, creating more favorable conditions for EU investors investing and doing business in Vietnam. The areas in which Vietnam is more committed to the EU include a number of professional services, financial services, telecommunications services, transport services, distribution services as well as areas in which the EU is strong such as manufacturing, clean energy, renewable energy. These are sectors that EU investors are interested in.

With such great opportunities, what issues does Vietnam need to pay attention to receive quality investment from the EU?

In order to grasp the opportunities, Vietnam needs to continue to improve and enhance the competitiveness of the investment environment such as continuing to perfect the legal system of policies related to investment, enterprises and planned land; continue to reform administrative procedures, improve the quality of public services. At the same time with the opportunities in signing EVIPA, Vietnam needs a national action program to implement this important investment agreement to raise the high quality of foreign capital inflows into Vietnam without strongly focusing on the amount of registered capital, especially in the context of Vietnam towards the digital economy and achievements of the industrial revolution 4.0. There is still about 150 billion USD of registered FDI in many industries that has not been disbursed. Vietnam also needs appropriate solutions to eliminate and prevent other foreign investors taking advantage of EVFTA and EVIPA to invest in Vietnam to benefit from these agreements, affecting their prestige and competition of Vietnam's investment environment.

What do Vietnamese businesses need to do to prepare to receive stronger opportunities and developments?

From an enterprise perspective, the competitiveness of domestic firms is a concerning matter. The reality shows that in any situation, advantages and challenges are always alternate. Although Vietnamese enterprises have weaker positions than EU enterprises and investors, such as most Vietnamese enterprises are small and medium enterprises, lack of capital, lack of high technology and lack of business; the management and information on the market is lower than the EU investors, Vietnamese enterprises are eager to learn, intelligent and have the determination to get over drawbacks.

EVFTA, EVIPA to help raise Vietnam’s position: expert The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), which are set to ...

The opportunity is that EU investors have technology, capital, market and a business mind, as well as a sense of responsibility in international investment, especially in the transparency of law enforcement and commitment to business investment in the host country. Therefore, if Vietnamese enterprises know how to seize opportunities from EVFTA and EVIPA, they can connect to have enough capital, enough experience to manage and grasp getting the international market trend, taking advantage of the incentives that the Government is creating conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to develop and be confident to find suitable projects for their businesses, then Vietnam businesses will succeed in investment cooperation with EU.